Pasture Cropping + Char. A marriage made in heaven?

[Michaelangelica]

Pasture Cropping + Char. A marriage made in heaven?

 

This is a programme on Pasture Cropping.

The idea of sowing your crop directly into unploughed fields full of grasses.

The object is to increase soil organic carbon.

 

Again another counter intuitive idea as for Tera Preta-- "burning" things to reduce greenhouse gasses.

Won't the grass take away water and soil nutrients from the crop?

Quite the opposite say the proselytisers of this idea.

 

But what if you sell you carbon for credits and you let your soil carbon fall?

Do you have to pay it back? Good question.

But will that happen if you spread char on the soil at the same time as sowing?

 

It seems to me char works best in soil with high levels of organic carbon.

This looks to me like a marriage made in heaven.

 

Quite along video, but well worth the time looking at it, if you are a farmer or interested in solutions to Global Warming. It is interesting that mining companies like Rio Tinto and The Qld. DPI are helping fund some research.

ANNE KRUGER, PRESENTER: There's a great deal of unease across rural Australia about the cost farmers will bear when agriculture is eventually included in an emissions trading scheme.

For every carbon credit, such as planting trees and leaving pasture intact, there's a debit, the cost of using fuel, fertiliser and other farm chemicals.

While it's fair to say soil-carbon sceptics still outnumber supporters, one scientist claims it's the key to farming profitably in a carbon economy.

PIP COURTNEY: What keeps you going?

CHRISTINE JONES: A belief that it will work. Yeah... I, absolutely, at a very deep level, I fundamentally believe and I actually know at a deep level that it does work.

 

PIP COURTNEY: Christine Jones's message is simple:

 

CHRISTINE JONES: Rebuilding carbon-rich agricultural soils is the only real productive permanent solution to taking excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

I feel the same about terra preta gardening/farming

Video at:-

Ground Control - Landline - ABC

[JMJones0424]

They mentioned using buffalo grass, which is known for being deep rooted. I would think that this would be an important factor. Fukuoka in One Straw Revolution speaks of something similar. If I were to mix a crop with something else, though, I would want it to be something with more value, such as a nitrogen fixing clover, deep soil mining, or a nutrient accumulator.

 

One thing that caught my eye

but people have to remember they're selling the ownership of that carbon in the soil to someone else, they no longer own the carbon in the soil, and if it disappears for any reason, they have to restore it. So I guess the brief message is for every credit there's an equal and opposite debit if the reverse action occurs.

 

So if a bushfire comes through, if a big drought occurs, if you decide you want to plough that paddock and that will reduce the soil carbon, then you've got to pay back any earnings that you've made, and probably more, before you can do that, so people need to understand the double-sided nature of storing carbon in soil.

 

Is this really the way carbon credits work? A one time payment dictates soil use for eternity?

 

Also, it would take quite a brushfire to reduce soil organic matter. I don't think drought reduces soil organic matter, does it? If anything, I would think low water conditions would slow down the decomposition rate of soil organic matter. Or are they referring to above ground carbonaceous material? If so, I would be hesitant to sell anything for a carbon credit unless I was reasonably sure that it would persist like char. Organic material in the soil is fleeting.

 

Ahead of Australia, with soil carbon trading schemes up and running, is the US and Canada. In the US, a carbon credit program based on no till cropping and perennial pastures has one million acres in 16 states.

 

I was entirely unaware of this. A neighbor uses no-till, he's the one that convinced me to stop tilling my garden. I'll have to speak with him and see if he's looked into carbon credits.

[Michaelangelica]

I would want it to be something with more value, such as a nitrogen fixing clover, deep soil mining, or a nutrient accumulator.

Good thought

One thing that caught my eye

 

 

Is this really the way carbon credits work? A one time payment dictates soil use for eternity?

Maybe; we haven't got one yet. The government has excluded farmers ! Although I hear murmurings that they are going back to the drawing board as things like pasture cropping, tree farms and Terra preta filter though their collective unconsciousness.

Well spotted! I think that was the only valid criticism the guy from the Farmer's Association made. I think that can be fixed by adding Biochar to the soil.

Also, it would take quite a brushfire to reduce soil organic matter.

We have just invented it in Victoria Australia. It has a new name Firestorm, with temperatures that melted glass.(See Quirky Science Facts thread)

 

But if you burnt, as native australians did, historically on cool, calm days. I think they may have even waited for a bit of cloud cover so the smoke might give the rain something to latch on to. The rain thus putting out the fire. Too fanciful by far I know. But they did "cold burn" according to Professor Stephen Joseph.

But,

thinking about it, the upper grass may be burnt, but that would not affect the roots; would it?

Many Oz grasses spring back after fire anyway refreshed and fertilised!

 

I might experiment on my back lawn and enhance my 'ding bat' reputation with the neighbours even more.

I don't think drought reduces soil organic matter, does it? If anything, I would think low water conditions would slow down the decomposition rate of soil organic matter. Or are they referring to above ground carbonaceous material? If so, I would be hesitant to sell anything for a carbon credit unless I was reasonably sure that it would persist like char. Organic material in the soil is fleeting.

Good question

I don't know.

You would theorise not, but we have had a ten year drought and maybe the soil wee beasties get a bit hungry in that time?

or

Maybe they just hibernate like many other Oz beasties and wait for Mrs Nina & the good times.

I guess that is something that needs research.

 

 

 

I was entirely unaware of this. A neighbor uses no-till, he's the one that convinced me to stop tilling my garden. I'll have to speak with him and see if he's looked into carbon credits.

[JMJones0424]

The important thing to remember, especially in times of drought, is that the "wee beasties" obtain their nutrients in a water dominated environment. No water, no feeding, no matter how hungry they might be. Luckily, most "wee beasties" hibernate very well, although I am not sure about ten years worth of hibernation.

[Michaelangelica]

The important thing to remember, especially in times of drought, is that the "wee beasties" obtain their nutrients in a water dominated environment. No water, no feeding, no matter how hungry they might be. Luckily, most "wee beasties" hibernate very well, although I am not sure about ten years worth of hibernation.

That is happening now in Lake Eyre Australia, starting a cascade of life, in pure salt!. Birds are flying in from 2,000 miles away (Do they all have mobile phones or social networking sites?? :smilingsun: )

 

The trouble, in areas like The Murray Darling, is that some wetlands are turning into sulphuric acid killing all hibernating life.:)

 

interesting that I tried (3 -4times)to talk to the pasture cropping people re biochar. They crossed their fingers and din't want to know. Perhaps they see biochar as competition rather than complimentary.

All this carbon sequestration thing, has suddenly become very competitive and political now, with talks of carbon credits scheme$--has it not?

 

PS

I have been thinking a bit more about pasture cropping and relating it to how we "weed' the garden (Weeds tell us there is a place here for something useful to grow or we are too dumb to know the use of the 'weed').

 

It would be a lot better for the planet and soil carbon level if we sliced weeds off just below the growing nub. This would be quicker and leave all that lovely roots of organic carbon in the soil for the wee beasties to feast on

Do you agree?